her black power suit would just have to do until she could get changed later.
"Would you like me to tell them you're here?" JARVIS asked.
Nat smirked "Nah I think I'll surprise them." She replied.
The elevator opened up onto the penthouse floor, the aroma of Thai food hitting her nose when she walked in. It seemed that all of the avengers were there along with who
she guessed was Dr Jane Foster by the way Thor was looking at her lovingly.
"Hey" She called when she got out of the elevator, she received waves and various hellos from the people sat around. She grabbed the plate of food Clint had put out for her
and sat down next to him.
"How was your flight?" He asked through a mouthful of food. She rolled her eyes and finished her mouthful of food before answering him.
"Bumpy how was Budapest?" She asked remembering the last time they were there.
"Colder. London was good though from what I got to see from the airport." He replied sarcastically. Nat shrugged looking down at her food. She was more shook up by the
woman from the lobby than she was willing to let on. She kicked off her flats and sat cross legged on the sofa.
She sighed and ran her hand through her hair ruffling the loose curls. Clint looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "What's up?" he asked quietly.
"I'm just glad to be back." She said smiling at him, avoiding telling him about her encounter with a ghost. Clint could tell that that wasn't all that was on her mind. If she
wanted to talk about it Clint knew she would sooner or later.
She finished her meal and turned to Dr Foster to introduce herself before going to bed. She stuck her hand out "Hi Dr Foster isn't it?" She asked in lieu of a greeting.
"Call me Jane." She smiled taking her hand.
"Natasha. It's nice to finally meet you; maybe I'll see you round the tower." She smiled standing up and taking her bag with her ready for a long hot shower and then her bed in
her own apartment, ready to forget what she saw today.
"Night guys." She called before walking to the elevator.
"Night Tasha." Clint called from the sofa.
"Hey Nat are you up for sparring tomorrow?" Steve asked leaning his head over the sofa.
She turned around "Sure what time?"
"Eight o'clock sound alright to you?"
"Got it." She replied before stepping in the waiting elevator and heading to her apartment ready to scrub the horrible airplane feeling off of her.
-Natasha POV -
The soft sounds of crying woke Natalia from her light sleep. She had been at the red room for just over a year and half now although it seemed much longer. This usually
happened when the brought a new batch of girls in. The sniffling came from the bed next to hers. The girl was bundled at the top of the rock solid cot.
Natalia put her head back on the pillow but couldn't go back to sleep. Huffing she silently slid out of her bed. The guard on the door was sitting against the door lazily, She
rolled her eyes at his stupidity. She rearranged the pillows in her bed to look like a person and pulled the sheet up over the top.
She sat on the floor next to the bed and tapped the little girls shoulder, "Hey, move over." She whispered. The little girl picked her blond head up. Her bright blue eyes glassy
with tears. She moved over in shock lifting the sheet over the top of them.
"Who are you?" The little girl asks timidly looking at the red head.
"I'm Natalia, what's your name?" She responds looking her in the eyes.
"Daria." She sniffled wiping her eyes with her small hand. Natalia must have only been a year or two older than her.
"You shouldn't cry, they see it as a sign of weakness they'll be harder on you." Natalia stated, Daria nodded her head in reply.
"Have they injected you with anything yet?" she asks slowly trying to make sure she knew what she meant, she mimed injecting something in her arm. She shook her head
slowly. "No they took blood I think." She replied her lip quivering.
"Good you can go in prepared." She replied, holding Daria's chin to stop her from crying sobbing again.
"Don't show any emotion when they do stuff to you, it's better not to show anything they won't be able to use it against you. You got that?" She asked waiting for Daria to
nod in reply
Darcy walks into the spacious room and sets her bags down on the old threadbare sofa -which she had gotten from a flea market- which was next to the window looking out
onto the street. She looked around at the large room, a reinforced wall sectioned off her training area leaving the rest of the top floor for her bedroom, living room and kitchen.
Half of her living room was covered in monitors which were connected to her security systems and all them had a self-destruct protocol written into the coding.
She walked into her kitchen making herself a cup of tea to calm her before sleeping. She put her iPod on and started checking the cupboards and making a list of the things
she needed, rearranging the contents into a better order. She moved her block of knives into the middle of the island in her kitchen in easy reach from the entrance to the
kitchen.
Her kitchen was one of Darcy's favourite parts of her flat especially the island, it had sightlines into her living room and you could see a reflection of the front door. It was a
perfect hiding place in case she was attacked at her flat (Which was incredibly unlikely considering all of the precautions she had put in place); it was hollowed out and
contained a varied selection of guns.
She finished making her cup of tea and moved back into the living room so she could unpack her things. She took her laptop out of the bag and hooked it up to her wall of monitors setting them up to notify her if anything happened whilst she was out.
The living room had large windows which let the darkness from outside into the room. The room smelled musty with just a hint of old sweat- which was coming from Darcy's
clothing- the overall smell was one that was deathly familiar to Darcy.
Settling back onto her sofa she opened up her duffel bag and went through her things one by one. She was just starting to get into a rhythm of sorting them into piles of money, identification and weapons when she picked up one of her knives. It was a simple sleek combat knife with a dark blackish red lacquered handle. She gripped it slightly
too tightly the sharp metal digging into her palms, bright red liquid dripped down the blade.
The coppery tang of blood permeated the air.
She stopped suddenly.
Utter dread filled up her senses. Her heart beat raced. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing to try and stop the barrage of memories that came with it but it was
too late.
-FlashbackSweat
dripped down Daria's brow and into her eyes but she could not stop to wipe it away. The sounds of grunting and laboured breaths filled her ears. Her muscles were
burning from exhaustion, her lip split and bleeding but she powered on through it. She could not let her win again.
Natalia had just got back the day before from a deep cover mission which had kept her away for two months. Daria had been back from her mission in Italy for about a week
now.
They had been at it for hours now, their moves only slightly slowing. The moves were still too quick for an untrained eye to tell apart.
Natalia thrust her elbow into her side eliciting a grunt from her. She quickly jumped backwards out of the way and fell back into a crouch swinging her leg out to catch
Natalia but she flipped backwards onto her hands.
Natalia always managed to anticipate her moves dodging, flipping and hitting back before Daria could re-evaluate and change her moves. But she was getting better. She
was beginning to catch Natalia off guard, hitting quicker or moving quicker than she expected. It
was Daria's only advantage.
"Are you getting tired yet?" Natalia smirked, effectively blocking Daria's hits. She huffed out a laugh and launched her knee in to Natalia's stomach.
"No, are you?" She smiled when her knee impacted Natalia. Natalia hooked her leg and kicked Daria in the kidneys. Daria sucked in a deep breath and carried on fighting.
"Call it quits at the next death hold?" Natalia questioned whilst keeping her relentless attack going. Daria blocked the hits whilst throwing a few of her own pushing Natalia
backwards.
"Alright." Daria replied.
Natalia threw a kick which sent Daria backwards. She flicked her blonde hair off her face ready for the next bout of fighting, she kicked her foot up high aiming for Natalia's
head. Natalia hooked her foot around Daria's back leg and caught the other and pushed it back causing Daria to fall on the floor with Natalia on top of her.
Natalia whipped her knife out ready to end the game.
Daria could not let her win again.
Before Natalia could do anything Daria flipped her over her shoulders and onto her back pinning her legs, took the knife out of her trapped arm and pressed it against her
throat.
"I win." Daria declared her face close enough to Natalia's that their handlers wouldn't be able to see what they were saying. Her hair created a curtain around them.
"Guess you did." Natalia smiled back blowing Daria's long blonde hair off of her face. They stayed there smiling at each other for a second before Daria got up off of Natalia
and gave Natalia her hand to help her up.
"Here" Daria said handing Natalia her knife back. Natalia didn't take it back.
"Keep it, I'll win it back at next time." She said wiping the sweat off of her brow.
"You sure about that?" Daria smirked flipping the knife in her palm testing out the weight, walking out of the training room alongside Natalia.
She was ripped from the memory by the sound of a siren passing her. Her eyes were watering with unshed tears. Her breathing quick and erratic.
That was the last time she ever saw Natalia.
They told her that Natalia had died on a mission, something went wrong and she ended up with a bullet to the temple. Daria hadn't believed them one bit… until she saw the
pictures.
Natalia's crimson curls matted into the blood coating the side of her head, her eyes open and glassy. It had been imprinted onto the back of her eyelids ever since.
Darcy had left half a year after Natalia was killed.
She hated the red room with every bone in her body. She knew that Natalia didn't die at the hands of her mark, it was the red room. She knew because the only way to get
the title of the Black Widow was to kill the original. There was another red room operative walking around- in the same city as her, living in the tower she worked at- as the
Black Widow.
'She must have been a coward to shoot Natalia; she doesn't deserve the title of Black Widow.' She was still gripping onto the knife the blood slowly dripping onto her coffee
table. She dropped the knife and tried to mop up the blood on her jeans.
The only reason that Daria stomached being in the same city as her was because she knew that that woman had gone through the same things as her.
'It wouldn't have been her choice.' She thought bitterly 'At least she managed to get out.' Daria stood up and left the rest of her things to be unpacked tomorrow before work.
'It should have been Natalia that got out.' She thought slamming her the door to her bathroom.
She washed her cuts and bandaged them knowing that by tomorrow morning they would look like pink lines. The sting of the water in the cuts helped bring her back to the
present.
She splashed the cool water on her face to calm her reddening eyes. She walked back to the living room grabbed her suitcase and took it too her bedroom. She got out the
pyjamas on top and put them on.
Thank God." Stacey sighed.
"This comes at a price." Toadsworth said. "Next leg, you will be marked for elimination, which means you must arrive first at the Pit Stop, or you will incur a 30-minute penalty."
"Nothing like a challenge." Stacey said.
"Let me ask you about the Yield." Toadsworth said. "Were there any personal feelings behind why you chose to Yield these two?"
"They're a strong team." Stacey said. "Personal feelings had very little to do with it."
"And how do you feel about it?" Toadsworth asked, turning to CJ and Shaylene.
"I felt like it was personally motivated." Shaylene said.
"I believe Stacey. If she said it was a strategy based choice, then that's what it was." CJ said. "I'm not upset. She did what she felt was a smart move for the race. It's a
game. It just means we need to fight harder to get back up to the top next leg."
Leg 6 Trivia:
- Originally, the Detour for this was going to be either climbing to the top of the Driftveil City lighthouse (seen only in Pokemon Black & White – absent from Black 2 & White 2)
or descending to the bottom of Driftveil Gym. However, I've been working on trying to make Detours more unique to the leg, hence why I chose to create Detour options based more on the hinted mining aspect of Driftveil City (though there's no stone vendor in the market in the games as far as I recall).
- Earlier drafts of this leg had racers battling against one of 9 gym leaders - Misty, Jasmine, Maylene, Roxie, Blaine, Gardenia, Brock, Morty or Drayden. However, to add more
of a challenge, I chose to poke around online and see if I could find a general consensus on who the hardest gym leaders in the series seemed to be, and a lot of people
seemed to struggle with Sabrina, Clair, Tate & Liza, Lenora and of course Whitney. I threw in Koga with the specific intent of him being Stacey's opponent in the Detour, since
her real-life counterpart had an incredibly challenging time beating him in a recent playthrough of Pokemon Yellow.
- Also, I had originally planned for this leg's Pit Stop to be at one of the many hotels seen in Driftveil in Black 2 and White 2. But N's House/the Team Plasma House seemed to
be more of a unique location, and I felt it was a better pick for Pit Stop.
"So, where to next?" Shaylene asked, as CJ opened the clue.
"Cool! We're going to Unova." CJ said. "Charizard Bridge."
"Isn't that the Driftveil Drawbridge?" Shaylene asked.
"No way! We're going to Unova!" Stacey said. "We get to see Pokemon!"
"Boom, girl! Let's do this!" Tina exclaimed.
"At the Detour, teams found themselves mining for iron in the local Pokemon gym…"
The Star Warriors each brought their pickaxes crashing down on a rock. MetaKnight's rock cracked open to a chunk of iron, while Kirby's rock crumbled.
"(Got another one!)" Kirby said.
"Same here." MetaKnight said.
"Got one, DK!" Diddy said.
"Glad you're having luck." DK said. "Third rock and still nothing."
"…or sifting and searching through a cave for evolution stones."
The girls all sifted through clumps of dirt.
"Found one!" Tina said, holding up a greenish stone with a lightning bolt design in it.
"Athena, is this one?" Janey asked, holding up an orange sun-shaped stone.
"I don't know." Athena said, as her dirt sifted through, leaving nothing behind.
"Yay! I found a Water Stone!" Stacey cheered, finding the same blue stone as Yoshi.
"Dad, I found another one!" Yoshi Jr said, holding up the same lightning bolt stone as Tina.
"Awesome!" Yoshi said. "That leaves… two to go."
"Boo ya! Found another one!" Tina said, finding a shiny purple stone.
"Kraggon spit…" Janey said. "Nothing."
"I've got one." Athena said, holding up one of the stones marked with a flame.
"Found a Dawn Ston
e!" Shaylene said, finding a shiny, round blue-green stone.
"Awesome. I've got a Dusk Stone." CJ said, holding up the same purple stone as Tina.
"At the Roadblock, racers found themselves battling against some of the best Pokemon trainers in the world, using Pokemon randomly assigned to them…"
"Roadblock… Who wants to be the very best?"
"I'll do it." MetaKnight said. He ran into the building and was greeted with a table covered in small red-and-white metal balls. Standing beyond the table were six people. A
dark-skinned woman with tall, bushy blue hair stepped forward, dressed in a white blouse and blue slacks.
"Greetings. I am Lenora, the Nacrene City Gym Leader. I will be your opponent today. Choose three Poke Balls. Those will be your Pokemon." The woman said.
"Let's see how you do." Koga said. "Crobat, I choose you!" Koga sent out a purple bat with two sets of wings: one smaller than the other.
"I hope I've got something good…" Stacey said, throwing the Poke Ball. She watched as a white creature emerged from the ball. Its body was flowing like a dress, purple skin
could be seen in parts of its face and it had two ice crystals sticking out of the top of its head. Tied around its waist was a red bow. "No way! A Froslass!"
"Let the battle begin! Crobat, Steel Wing!" Koga shouted.
"Dodge it!" Stacey said.
"Star Warriors Kirby and MetaKnight misread one of their clues, gaining a significant lead on other teams, which cost them first at the Pit Stop…"
"Kirby and MetaKnight… You're the first team to arrive…" Toadsworth said.
"(Awesome!)" Kirby said.
"However…"
"That's not good." MetaKnight said.
"The Detour clue specifically said to take a bike to your destination." Toadsworth said. "And you were supposed to take that bike to the World Tournament building as well. You
took your cab to both, and for that, you have incurred two 30-minute penalties, for a total of one hour, and you must wait that out before I can check you in."
"Leading to another first place victory for father-and-son team Yoshi and Yoshi Jr."
"Yoshi and Yoshi Jr." Toadsworth said. "You guys are the second team to arrive."
A Girl of the Future Page 21
